


A Different Approach

by emjam



Series: lgbtq+ gravity falls [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: (ofc bc of the beginning of the tooth short), Dipper plays the sousaphone, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Genderqueer Mabel, Nonbinary Character, Siblings Supporting Each Other, Trans Character, Trans Dipper, and is in marching band, crafts make life better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 20:09:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8503705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emjam/pseuds/emjam
Summary: Dipper is having some trouble getting band kids to remember his pronouns. Mabel helps out.
(Dipper is a trans boy and Mabel is genderqueer [ae/aer pronouns]. They are both 15.)





	

“Hey, are you okay, Dipper?”

Dipper was currently sitting on his bed, wrapped up in blankets. The digital alarm clock on his nightstand reads 9:18 PM. Mabel had been startled by the slam of aer brother’s door, and slid out of bed to see what was going on.

“I dunno,” Dipper mutters from behind his blue comforter. His bag and water had been thrown onto the floor and it seems like he hasn’t made any effort to get ready for bed.

Mabel stood in the doorway still. “What’s wrong? Did something happen at practice?”

“Kind of, I guess… you can sit down if you want.” Mabel accepts the offer and sits in his desk chair opposite his bed, bringing aer knees up to aer chest and curling aer feet on the edge of the chair. Dipper continues, pulling the blanket away from his face so that ae can hear better. “I just can’t ever wear my binder to practice. We do a lot of stuff that would be really bad for me if I put that much compression on my chest while we did it. And I think it’s part of the reason why my section keep misgendering me, even though I’ve reminded them maybe a dozen times about my pronouns! It just really sucks. I get to be dysphoric every practice when wherever else, I can wear my binder and be myself.”

Mabel tries to contain aer anger. It sounds like these guys aren't even trying to remember his pronouns at all! Ae doesn't have any ideas about the problem with his binder, either, which just makes aer sad for him; ae isn't a stranger to dysphoria. “Are you sure you can’t - ”

“I’ve tried everything, Mabel! Nothing works but an actual binder, but all I can do is wear a sports bra, which does nothing!” He wipes away angry tears. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. It just… sucks.”

Mabel gets out of the chair and hugs him. “I’m sorry. I guess there’s not much you can do about binding. Do you want to talk more about it?”

He sniffs, returning the hug. “Thanks. You don’t have to really do anything, it was nice to just get some of it off my chest, since this keeps happening every band practice. It kind of piles up.”

Mabel pulls away, already trying to formulate some plan to make this better. "Okay. I have some ideas, but I’ll have to draft some stuff first… You should probably go to sleep, don’t you have that pre-calc test tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” He replies. “I already studied for it.”

“Of course you did, nerd.” Mabel, on the other hand, had forgotten about aer bio quiz until the morning of, and had to frantically skim aer notes in homeroom that morning. “I’m sorry about your section. I know they’re hard to avoid because, well, they’re your section, but we’ll find a way to get ‘em to stop." Ae makes aer way to the door. "I’m gonna go to bed, unless you need anything?"

“Nah, I'm good. Goodnight, Mabel.”

Ae smiles. "Night, Dipping Sauce!”

The door shuts, and Dipper turns off his bedside lamp.

* * *

A week and a day later it’s Tuesday, meaning no band practice, which is a relief for Dipper. The extra dysphoria he has to go through almost every other day by wearing a bra started to take its toll, especially with his somewhat ignorant sousaphone section. He comes home, throws his bag down, and takes his binder off. He turns, only to find a group of items laid out on his bed. A bright pink sticky note sits next to them. He picks it up, and it says, “Hope this helps! :) - Mabs” with a few stickers surrounding the penned words.

He examines the things arranged on his bed.

The stuff next to the note turns out to be an array of gender-affirming paraphernalia, all seemingly hand-stitched or homemade, but not without quality and craftsmanship. There is a blue “he/him” patch, which Dipper notes is similar in structure to Mabel’s own rainbow “ae/aer” patch that adorns aer bookbag. Next to that is a he/him button that he realizes, with excitement, he could easily pin to his shirt or jacket during practice. Below these two items is a plain, unadorned sports bra, with another glaringly pink sticky note on it that reads, “I found some info online and made you a sports bra that also compresses pretty well! If it doesn’t fit or it hurts tell me and I’ll fix it!”

He takes a moment, just looking, thinking about the time it would have taken to draft the designs. The patch is intricately embroidered with dedication.

Mabel handmade it all for him.

* * *

A knock on Mabel’s door interrupts aer in the middle of aer homework, which ae isn’t too sad about. Ae pushes away the dreaded geometry onto the floor, pulls out aer earbuds, and lounges in aer beanbag chair. “Come in!”

Dipper enters his sibling’s room, clutching the pronouns patch to his chest. “Mabel, did you make this by hand?”

“Yup!” Ae responds cheerfully. “To be honest, I had kinda already started it after I made my own, but after hearing the trouble you were having, I finished it up.” Mabel’s pretty proud of those patches, especially since embroidery isn't aer prefered medium.

“I love it! Thank you so much!” Dipper goes over to Mabel, crouches to aer beanbag chair’s level, and hugs aer. “I love the other stuff too! I haven’t tried the sports bra on yet but I know it’s probably perfect. Seriously, thanks.” He withdraws, still holding the patch. Mabel smiles; ae's glad that the gifts worked out so well.

“Aw, no problem, Dipping Dots. You can come to me if you need anything else, okay? Even just to talk.” Ae remembers how he helped aer figure out aer own identity, and wants to be as supportive and helpful a friend as he was - and still is. Mabel is more assertive and bold in expressing and talking about aer gender, and Dipper might need that outgoingness sometimes too. Ae has pride flag and pronoun trinkets out the wazoo, and Dipper only uses his voice. That wasn’t something ae blamed him for - how could ae? - but aer approach might help in getting people to really keep his pronouns in mind.

“Yeah, you too.” He remembers how Mabel helped him come out to Grunkle Stan two summers ago, and then the rest of their family shortly after. Whatever they had said, Mabel had been there regardless, and ae did it again, with this. He wants aer to know that even if he’ll never understand aer identity as if it were his own, he’ll always be there, even though ae often didn’t need too much support in coming out, choosing to involve a possibly unreasonable amount of glitter and sound effects in the process.

All he really needs is himself and maybe a few quiet buttons to get his point across in this case, and he’s glad that ae understands that about himself, enough to even think of solutions where he could only become frustrated.

On Wednesday, Dipper wears his new sports bra to practice. It, of course, doesn’t bind as intensely as a binder and will not get him flat, but it’s so much better than the other sports bras he was using. Paired with a baggy hoodie - suitable now that the weather was getting colder - he can almost look flat. Seeing himself in band pictures and group selfies no longer inspires disgust within him, but instead fills him with a better, warmer feeling.

The other sousaphone players - a girl named Janet and a guy called Nathan - still basically ignore his pronouns at first, but this time he just gestures to his pronoun pin when he becomes frustrated with them, and they uncomfortably shuffle their feet and mumble “sorry”s and “I’ll remember”s. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.

If there’s still a problem, he’ll go to the band director. For now, though, he goes to practice without a dysphoria-induced fog of sadness, feeling like he's taking control of how he's perceived, and he silently thanks Mabel every time someone sees his pin or his patch and corrects themselves.

**Author's Note:**

> I actually started writing this and had to go to band practice lmao.
> 
> I just couldn't get the thought of trans dipper struggling with band practice bc of binding etc out of my head, so I wrote this! I don't really like this tbh, but I really just wanted to post it I guess?? I'm nonbinary myself, jsyk the experiences behind this work. I miiight make this part of a series of lgbtq+ gf stuff, since I already have another bit about these two and their identities in the works, but we'll see.


End file.
